Stake 'em and move on: Too much sympathy for Vampires on TV

[wingsandsword]

I know that vampires are popular in fiction, but I just don't get how sympathetically they are treated on TV.

On True Blood, the only sympathetic vampire is Bill. Virtually every other one is a total monster, and the show is largely about vampires struggling to be legally recognized as having full civil rights (admittedly I've only seen the first season in it's entirety, and a few bits and pieces of later seasons, including one vampire murdering someone on live TV to "prove" to the world that they aren't like humans). When we see the insides of vampiric society, it's about ancient mighty elders acting like particularly decadent and sadistic nobles from the dark ages.

My wife likes to watch Being Human, and the more I see of that show, the more it seems to be much the same. A world full of vampires (and werewolves) with vampiric society being downright evil and built on social models from millennia ago.

The thing is, on both of these shows, vampire hunters are definitely not seen as sympathetic. The Fellowship of the Sun in True Blood are the only people who seem to have a real understanding of what is going on, and they are antagonists depicted to be out-of-control villains. The occasional vampire hunters on Being Human are treated as people with serious mental issues on erratic rampages.

The only time I've seen vampire hunting treated sympathetically on TV was Buffy (and the short-lived Blade series I presume, but I never got to see it).

Does anybody else not get the lack of love for those who would drive stakes into the hearts of monsters?

 

[drothgery]

The only time I've seen vampire hunting treated sympathetically on TV was Buffy (and the short-lived Blade series I presume, but I never got to see it).

... and even there I would have strongly advised Buffy to stake Angel after the first time he went evil, and Spike never would have gotten a first chance, let alone a second, third, or fourth one if the Slayer listened to me.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This seems like a good place for this video:


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZwM3GvaTRM[/ame]


And the hunters are only unsympathetic in stories where the romantic relationship between vamps and humans gets center stage. No one thinks that the Frog Brothers were unsympathetic in Lost Boys, for instance.

And, of course, in the UK version of Being Human (and I guess the American version, although I couldn't stand to keep watching it), the point is that the central characters are attempting to reject their monstrous natures in favor of humanity, and having someone hack their heads off certainly makes them an antagonist.

 

[Janx]

Supernatural shows vamps getting staked mercilessly.

Though i agree, shows like vampire diaries the protags seriously should have staked some vamps sooner not later.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Buffy stakes Edward...the end...

As I posted in the "party vs good vampire" thread

The only Good vampire is a DEAD vampire.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Being Human doesn't really have any true vampire hunters to speak of except that one secret society which was basically using an "ends justify the means" ethical compass at its core, which led to the slaughter of innocents.

Most of the vampire killing besides that has been by werewolves and other vampires.

As for the vamps themselves, only the main character (and the little kid in the British version) gets any real positive storylines on screen- almost all of them are evil mofos.

...and he gets his share of dark & twisted himself. He DID kill a bunch of people on a train in a fit of insane rage, after all.

 

[Mallus]

The only Good vampire is a DEAD vampire.

If all vampire stories followed that, wouldn't they get kinda monotonous?

Me, I'm all for sympathy for vampires, the Devil, and/or sexy God-obsessed killer robots on TV. There all just people. Well, in this context, they're all just fiction, quite often of the metaphoric or allegoric variety, and as such it's probably not a good idea to take their crimes quite so literally.

That gets in the way of the fun.

 

[Felon]

The OP seems to pivot between asking why there's sympathy for vamps and why there's not much interest in vamp hunters. Two separate questions, really.

The fantasy of eternal youth is appealing to many people, especially when it's packaged in a form that's thin, strong, and high of cheekbone. The ladies in particular love the thought of some tormented badass that quietly cries out for the love of a good woman to pull him away from the darkness. An entire genre has been built up around this.

Vampire-hunting is just killing monsters. There's certainly plenty of fiction about that, but monster-bashing isn't quite as romantic. Of course, many walk the line between the two (Buffy, Blade, Vampire Hunter D).

 

[Mallus]

The fantasy of eternal youth is appealing to many people, especially when it's packaged in a form that's thin, strong, and high of cheekbone. The ladies in particular love the thought of some tormented badass that quietly cries out for the love of a good woman to pull him away from the darkness. An entire genre has been built up around this.

Vampire-hunting is just killing monsters. There's certainly plenty of fiction about that, but monster-bashing isn't quite as romantic. Of course, many walk the line between the two (Buffy, Blade, Vampire Hunter D).

Good point. This is really about two entirely different kinds of power fantasy.

One is a fantasy about the power to redeem evil (or emo, in the case of certain contemporary works).

The other is a fantasy about the power to righteously destroy evil.

And Buffy is a great example of something that mixes the two.

 

[Stumblewyk]

I've honestly never watched a second of any of these shows, but I think I have an explanation for the True Blood issue - isn't the "vampire rights" motif of that show supposed to be a direct analogue of the gay rights movement? I seem to remember reading that somewhere when the show first came out. If so, that would explain the "vampire hunters are crazed loonies" deal - they're likely supposed to be stand-ins for far-right anti-gay rights activists.

And actually, that's probably the core issue at play in all of these "vamps are too well liked" shows - they're not really vampires. At least not in a metaphorical sense. Vamps, werewolves, ghost, whatever, they're all just representing some other "misunderstood" social group in our modern culture. And in an era that espouses acceptance and tolerance unlike any other in human history, you present the strange as accepted - those who can't deal with the strange become dangerous outliers.

Either that, or I took AP English class WAAAAAY too seriously in high school.